Late last summer, after three years in the suburbs, my wife and I moved back into Seattle.  Among the first "accessories" we bought for our renewed urban lifestyle were two 2001 TNG Venice scooters.  We bought them from some suburbanite friends who loved them but had little use for them beyond their neighborhood, which had quickly grown boring.  At $800 for the pair, including trunks and helmets, these were the best investment we could have made!  We immediately fell in love with the world of scootering, and I, of course, began lusting for something more.  I longed for a retro Vespa or a Stella, but I was going to have to save up...I figured I could set aside work bonuses, birthday cash, and other miscellaneous little amounts and have enough to buy a fixer-upper by late summer.  The 50cc Venice was going to have to do for the time being.

 

Well, along comes my 30th birthday in May, and what does my wife do but surprise me with a brand-new black 2005 Stella!  We drove to Seattle Ducati after work on the Friday before my birthday, presumably just to look for a new scooter jacket for my wife.  Imagine the look on my face when we walked up to a row of Stellas and she said, "oh hey look, this one's already sold," and she pulled the "sold" tag from the seat and it said "Happy Birthday Jeremy!"  It has been almost a month now and I am still awestruck by what she did!

 

Needless to say, my Stella and I are inseparable.  Although it has been a cool and rainy spring here in Seattle, I still manage to ride it to work two or three days a week, and as the weather dries out and warms up, the scooter will be almost exclusively my daily commuter.  The old Venice could not do it - I have a short freeway segment (SR-520 bridge across Lake Washington) and need to be able to go 60-65 mph, which the Stella does without complaint.  Not only can I reduce my drive time and gas consumption considerably, but I also always show up at work with a smile on my face and a spring in my step!

Jeremy Finds "Easy" Velcro Solution

Several of us with Vintage Vespas, Lambrettas and new Stella and Bajaj scooters have spring-loaded luggage racks. One of the challenges is keeping them in the down position while piling on the crap to carry. Jeremy asked me about this and I mentioned how I used strips of two-sided velcro. The "problem" was in finding these. I used old laptop computer power supplies that had two-sided velcro on them for bundling up the cords. Works great, but not so easy to find.

Jeremy went to a local office supply store and purchased the cable management velcro strips pictures above to the left. As you can see in the right half of the picture, they work wonderfully.... and are EASY TO FIND. Kudos to Jeremy for a great solution!